


A Work of Meepmorp

by SusieBeeca



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A little angst, Gen, Lapis doesn't give Peri enough credit, Limb Enhancers, Metal Powers, Peridot accidentally gets deep, Peridot is kinda clueless though, ferrokinesis, meepmorps, reflecting on the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 16:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19299544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusieBeeca/pseuds/SusieBeeca
Summary: “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”― Pablo PicassoLapis is stuck in the past; Peridot looks to the future. A meepmorp-making session leads the former to ask the latter an awkward question.





	A Work of Meepmorp

The moment Vidalia had handed Peridot those art books, she’d created a monster.

That was Lapis’ belief, and nothing was going to shake it from her. Peridot had begun spouting terminology that she clearly didn’t quite comprehend, but Lapis could tell by the gleam in her eyes that she liked sounding smart. Her latest effort had to---just HAD to, she insisted---be done outdoors. _En plein air._ She hadn’t asked Lapis to join her… not with words, at least. So now the sulking gem was sitting on one of two plastic folding chairs, watching as her friend waved her arms around like a mad conductor.

 _‘En plein air’,_ Lapis thought with mild disdain. _That’s so pretentious. Just say ‘outside’_.

She flicked away the ladybug that was crawling up her leg. Meepmorps were just something to pass the time, but Peridot was starting to take them very seriously. Sometimes Lapis wanted to smack her and yell about the _uselessness_ of it all.

And yet…

There was something captivating in the way the artist was moving, the way the sunlight glinted off the chrome sculpture, the way the pieces moved from creator to creation in a lopsided dance.

Lapis watched Peridot as she inched the last few pieces of metal into place, and if Peridot had been watching _her_ , she would have seen the usual affected apathy slowly bleed off of Lapis’ face. Her mouth was still a pressed crease, but her eyes had begun to show some life.

“A-ha! There we go!” Peridot crowed when her meepmorp came to completion with a satisfying ‘clink’. She shook the kinks out of her arms and stood next to her creation, beaming. “This one will be titled ‘Untitled’. I heard that smug irony is quite popular with human meepmorp-makers.” She patted the jagged side of her work, but quickly stopped when the metal groaned in protest. “It represents the inevitable Heat Death of the Universe, and the horrible existential dread that comes from knowing everything we have ever known and loved will be slowly torn to shreds at a subatomic level.” She turned her wide smile back to Lapis. “I find it quite inspiring! What do you think?”

She shrugged. “’S nice.”

“Quite high praise coming from you,” she replied with a twinkle in her eye. She scrambled up on her chair and began fiddling with the leftover scraps that hadn’t made it into ‘Untitled’, her brows furrowed and her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. Lapis eyed her, noting how her feet didn't even reach the ground. They were swinging below her excitedly. Just as Peridot was about to slip back into the deep, engulfing hyperfocus of creation, Lapis’ voice, thin and surprisingly small, broke her concentration:

“Peridot… do you ever miss your limb enhancers?”

Startled, she dropped the cog she’d been spinning and looked up, her mouth open but wordless.

Lapis flushed and turned away, her chin in her fist. “Whatever. Forget I said anything.”

“No, no! It’s a valid question.” Peridot pulled her knees in closer and stared down at them. “In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t come up sooner.” After tapping her feet together a few times, she turned her head to the sky and licked her lips. “Yes. I do miss them sometimes. But if I hadn’t lost them, I never would have discovered my metal powers… and I think that’s more than a fair trade-off.” It looked like she was going to make eye contact, but decided against it at the last second. “Everything that’s happened to a gem---good and bad---shapes who they are. And I’ve found that gems who’ve gone through terrible times are the best gems there are.”

Though Peridot wasn’t always the best at picking up social cues, right now she could definitely feel the heavy tension in the air, so she jumped to her feet and put on her best smile. “It’s like making a meepmorp---if I hadn’t lived the life I’ve had, we wouldn’t be here right now! I wouldn’t be the gem I m today! And we wouldn’t have ‘Untitled’!”

Lapis’ hand couldn’t hide her slow, reluctant grin. “Right.”

“…Though there are certain things I miss.” Peridot tapped her chin. “I liked making a lot of noise when I paced around.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Indeed.” What she said next pretty much slapped the bored look right off Lapis’ face: “Being face-level with Jasper’s cleavage was a nice bonus, too.”

Then her whole face brightened. “Oh! And my touch-stumps had a vibrating feature! You’ll _never_ guess what I used that for!”

Lapis groaned and dropped her forehead to her palms. “I regret starting this conversation.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will never get tired of the word "meepmorp". I had some fun with this as an artist myself, especially taking little digs at how pretentious the art world can be sometimes ;P I hate to admit how much like Lapis I can be sometimes... but I try to share Peridot's philosophy.
> 
> This was originally going to be a comic (Lapis' "ಠ_ಠ" face would be fun to draw!), but I liked fleshing it out a bit more. As always, thanks for reading!


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